Ok, I've finally had a little time recently to fool around with some personal visual effects. I always felt that magic and visual effects are very close, which is one reason I like both so much. In both, you are creating an illusion of reality that doesn't exist.

I've wanted to post something like this awhile ago, but couldn't due to NDA. So I went outside my house and filmed my empty street and created this.

How hard is a relative term, I think. It is so much like magic, which is why I posted it here. Like magic, you can spend a lifetime perfecting your craft. I've been doing this type of stuff for several years and still see nothing but flaws in my work.

But what you see is actually several steps and programs combined:

1. Shoot footage with imaginary tank and animation in mind
2. Load into computer and "matchmove" to get a 3D representation of the camera
3. Animate the tank
4. Use the matchmoved camera in the 3D program to render out several 'passes' of the tank
5. Composite (or 'glue') the pieces together in a compositing program (I use Shake)
6. Add audio and color grade for the final look

Also, I've updated the above link with a new version of the video with audio.

All my life Scott. But I didn't become serious untill 1989 when Greg Lemond won the Tour de France. A little while after that I got my first hi-tech road bike; A $1,200 Carbon fiber Trek. Since then, it's been 100 mile rides!

Call me when you are in the city, I'll take you for a spin.

BenSalinasSpecial user
Coinoscenti
746 Posts

Posted: Jun 26, 2008 08:35 am

0

That was awesome Scott! I wondered what you'd been up to! Saw Randy and Francis at Bob Little's a couple weeks ago. Hopefully we'll all hook up this summer! My best to the family!